Vroom & Dreesmann

The historic department store of Vroom & Dreesmann forms a beacon for the center of Amsterdam. The complex consists of a combination of different buildings which have been rebuilt several times over the last hundred years. The main part of the complex is the former department store that was designed in 1912 by the architect Francois Caron and radically renovated in the 1930s by the Amsterdam School architect Jan Kuijt. The second part of the complex consists of the eighteenth-century warehouses on the Rokin and the nineteenth-century building of Jacot and & Oldewelt on the Kalverstraat, where caterer La Place is located. The design for the V&D complex fits in the tradition of critical reconstruction. The individual buildings have lost their own character over the years. All interventions by Office Winhov serve to reinforce the characteristic of the original buildings and to make the different layers of time visible. Historically valuable elements such as the steel curtain wall have been reconstructed and the historic St. Jorissteeg has been reduced as a connection between Rokin and Kalverstraat, thereby strengthening the public domain.